The German in me has come out: Die Frau (translation: The Lady) will post her ramblings, thoughts, and gripes so she won't drive her loving man, supportive family, or amazing friends screaming into the night.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

A Defense of Man

I'm taking a quick time-out from grading after talking with Scarlet Lily as we sighed with happiness over the healthy birth of Feathernester's first child, a beautiful baby girl. Click on her name to see pictures of the new little one soon! I admit we laughed because ten years ago, Feathernester could barely make spaghetti, and now she's this domestic dynamo and will make a fabulous mommy. Congratulations!

Anyway, SL and I were talking about something that nags me which DH pointed out: Has anyone else noticed that a major premise for sitcoms involves a husband-wife combo where the man plays a barely functional Neanderthal-moron type and the woman ends up as the smarter, often shrewish wife? Wherein lies the humor? DH takes offense as an intelligent, sensitive man who, while he does occasionally sling clothes on his side of the bedroom and still needs reminding of family birthdays, does not show any of the exaggerated behavior these sitcom men do. It's the reason he won't watch Everybody Loves Raymond. They also have this formula on Home Improvement, According to Jim, Rules of Engagement (although that's also more the "marriage is actually hellish" route) and probably others I haven't thought of. Not only does this formula insult men and women, it's also tired and overdone. For some reason it works a little better in cartoon form (Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin), but I even want to clock those men sometimes for their behavior. I realize the exaggeration is part of the comedy script and makes it hiLARious, etc., etc., but let's broaden our horizons, shall we? I realize I could 1) not watch these shows or 2) turn the idiot box off, but the fact that they're out there and constantly being reproduced bugs me a bit. This may be why I prefer the How I Met Your Mother and The Office type of comedy--at least Michael Scott wreaks his complete lack of tact and political correctness on everyone...and you kind of love him for it.

That's it. I'm going to go read a book.

p.s. Totally random, but did you know you can translate your blogger posts into Hindustani? Fascinating. And why Hindustani only? It's under "shortcuts" when you click "more". What an age we live in....

1 comment:

I agree. Case in point: The Husband, it turns out, is a baby care machine. At least compared to me, who had never before now really been around a newborn. He is in superhuman, protective, "I'm taking care of both my girls" mode, changing diapers like a champion, up before me every time she cries at night, the better burper, the better swaddler. The list could go on. So you can add that as supporting evidence for your case.